(Paris) Migraine does not spare children since one in ten is affected by this chronic disease, still poorly diagnosed, with impacts on their schooling. But a young migraine sufferer will not necessarily remain so in adulthood.
Posted at 12:02 p.m.
Migraine affects, according to international studies, 5 to 15% of children. This subject will be on the agenda of the “Francophone migraine summit” on September 17, an online event.
For Maïwenn Colléaux, 18, the migraines started around 14-15 years old, even if her first headaches date back to childhood.
“It immediately changed my daily life: when I was in crisis, I no longer went out, my social life stopped, I could no longer go to school”, she said Thursday during a press conference organized by the French association La Voix des migraineux.
“Of course, we feel different from the other children, who did not really understand my suffering and for whom I had a simple headache”.
However, migraine is a real disease, which is characterized by the regular and repetitive occurrence of violent headaches, sometimes associated with vomiting.
“Misunderstood, little taught in the medical world, migraine in children affects as many little boys as little girls before puberty,” explained Anne Donnet, neurologist, head of the Center for Pain Assessment and Treatment. at the Timone hospital in Marseille.
It is from the first menstrual cycles that the frequency of migraines becomes more important in girls.
Its diagnosis and management are even more complicated than for adults, because the symptoms are often mistaken for digestive disorders.
Stomach aches
“It was because I myself was a migraine sufferer that I was able to diagnose my daughter’s illness”, noted Karine Colléaux, Maïwenn’s mother. “In children, migraine often results in paleness and stomach pain,” she explained.
Childhood migraine is as disabling as adult migraine: 50% have more than one attack per month and 78% have a moderate to severe attack intensity. 40% have nausea or vomiting, 33% abdominal pain.
“The majority of patients we see in consultation arrive around 10 years old, but the headaches often started before,” Justine Have-Couturier, pediatrician in neurology at the Lille University Hospital, told AFP.
Very often, the crises have an impact on their schooling, hence the need to establish a diagnosis: “we cannot eradicate migraine, but we can reduce its frequency and intensity”, she pointed out.
A healthy lifestyle (diet, sleep, physical activity) is thus “particularly crucial for children and adolescents with migraine”, explained the neuropediatrician.
On the treatment side, paracetamol, anti-inflammatories or specific crisis treatments (such as triptans) are generally prescribed.
“Note the crises on a diary, to identify what triggers them, can in some cases help to better manage them”, also advised the Dr Justine Have Couturier.
While many factors can cause a migraine, stress and fatigue are often identified by patients.
Resistant to drugs, Maïwenn Colléaux has “tried everything”: self-hypnosis, hypnotherapy, equitherapy, EMDR… “These methods calm me down at the time, but don’t work in the long term. When I’m in crisis, I don’t take anything, I wait for it to pass, ”she said.
But a child with migraine will not necessarily be an adult with migraine. Only 40% note the persistence of migraine in adulthood. “Some children will progress from a migraine headache to less severe headaches,” reassured Dr.r Give.